Azerbaijan’s New Port in Alat Aims To Become Another Major Inter-Continental Transport Hub

17 March 2018

EIRNS—Importance of Central Asia, a virtual non-entity during the Cold War days, is becoming increasingly evident as the merging point of trade routes linking the west
(Turkey and EU), south (Iran and India) and north (Russia). In a March 13 article in Forbes, Wade Shepard reported the development of the New Port in Alat, about 65 kms from Baku, Azerbaijan as the crow flies. Shepard wrote: "The biggest point of sale of the New Port of Baku at Alat is its geographic position, sitting at the crossroads of the central corridor of the Belt and Road, which stretches from China to Europe and includes the newly opened Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, and the emerging North-South Transport Corridor, which connects India with Russia via Iran."

The port, scheduled to be completed in three phases, will be operational in May 2018 when the first phase of development gets completed, according to Azerbaijan’s Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, the Azeri news agency Trend reported. Mustafayev said that after the first phase is completed, the port’s capacity will be 15 million tons per year. "The port’s capacity will be increased up to 25 million tons of cargo and 500,000 containers per year at the second stage, and up to 1 million containers per year — at the next stage," said Mustafayev.

In addition, the new port location is linked to existing highways and railways, connecting the port to the inland regions of the country. There are three international rail routes into Azerbaijan, which all converge at Alat: to the northwest, passing through Baku to Russia; to the west, passing through Georgia to the shores of the Black Sea and Turkey; to the south and to the border area with Iran.